LISA MILLAR:
Treasurer, good morning to you.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Good morning, Lisa. Nice to be with you and your viewers.
LISA MILLAR:
Yeah, I bet there are a few people who are glad to see the end of this fortnight. It’s been a bit fraught. Let’s start with those figures, because the drop was not as bad as expected, but from what I gather, you’re sort of counting on this $400 billion of household and business savings to help the economy get going.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, Lisa, you’re right. It wasn’t a surprise to see the economy contract in the September quarter when we had 13 million of our fellow Australians in lockdown, but the good news is that since that time, we’ve actually seen a real lift in household consumption. We saw strong retail sales in Black Friday last week. We’ve also seen business investment intentions lift to their highest on record in the non‑mining sector, and 350,000 jobs have actually come back since the start of September. Australia’s economic recovery has been better than all but two of the major advanced economies. Better than Canada, better than the United Kingdom, better than Germany, better than Italy and better than Japan. And yes, there are new variants of the virus like Omicron, but we have to learn to live with the virus and its variants and I think we can look to next year with a lot of confidence.
LISA MILLAR:
Yeah, but what’s your plan B? What’s the plan B if people don’t spend the money if they get rattled? We saw it on the markets. The markets dropped by two per cent, the Dow, when Omicron turned up.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, again I point you to what happened last year. Last year, we did see again a spike in the household savings ratio, in that case to over 23 per cent. But then it halved over the course of the year, and we saw a big jump in household consumption to a record level of 15 per cent. So, I’m expecting at the same time, this time around to see the savings ratio come down as confidence rebuilds, as restrictions are lifted, and people go about their normal daily lives; using hotels, going to cafes, going to restaurants, going interstate or overseas for travel. So, yes, there is always going to be these ups and downs with this virus. It’s not left us. We’re not over it just yet. But we have to learn to live with it and, hopefully, we can put those lockdowns behind us.
LISA MILLAR:
Yeah, there’s been a bit of movement on legislation. I just want to ask you why the voter ID legislation has been shelved and is the Government still committed to it? If you win the next election, is it going to pop back up again?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
We obviously thought it would be good to introduce that voter ID recommendation and I don’t see why you don’t have to, when you’re making a vote about your political representatives. you don’t have to show proof of identity. We’ve seen that right across various states in the United States…
LISA MILLAR:
But you’ve shelved it so…
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, because obviously the Labor Party was not in favour of it. We reached an accommodation on other aspects of improving the integrity around electoral laws and various thresholds for further accountability, but at the same time, we do believe that voter ID is important. That’s why we announced it in the first place, but we didn’t have the support across the Parliament to introduce it.
LISA MILLAR:
Greg Hunt is going to announce today that he’s stepping away. That’s a big loss for you, isn’t it?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
It is a big loss for me, for his electorate, for the country and for the Coalition. He’s my best friend in Parliament, Lisa. I was the best man at his wedding. We’re the godfather to our respective children, and he has made a really great contribution, whether it’s in medical research and seeing more investment there, whether it’s in mental health, which he’s been a champion for additional resources for, or listing new drugs on the PBS. And being the Health Minister in a once‑in‑a‑century pandemic is a challenge for anyone. I think Greg has done a sterling job, and the fact that Australia now has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world and one of the lowest mortality rates in the world is a real credit, obviously, first and foremost to our health workers, but Greg can also be proud of the part he played in that outcome.
LISA MILLAR:
So, we’ve got Christian Porter going. We’ve got Greg Hunt going. Why don’t you step up and advocate for women to fill those seats to be preselected? I know last night on 7.30 you said it’s not up to you; it’s up to the preselectors. You’re one of the leaders of the party and the party has not done well on gender parity.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, I would like to see women step up to represent us in those seats of both Flinders and Pearce, and I understand there are good female candidates who will be in the field for preselection. But ultimately those decisions will be in the hands of the preselectors. We’re a grassroots party in the Coalition and…
LISA MILLAR:
Time for quotas?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well no, it’s not a time for quotas but it is a time to try to get more women into our parliamentary ranks. We’ve got some outstanding candidates including in Corangamite and Dunkley, in my home state of Victoria, and across other seats in the country. But this is a good opportunity, as you say, to get women into those two seats of Pearce and Flinders. But ultimately the decision will be one for the local preselectors.
LISA MILLAR:
Josh Frydenberg, thanks for your time this morning.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
My pleasure, Lisa.